The Moral Animal: Why We Are The Way We Are - The New Science Of Evolutionary Psychology Quotes
"The highest stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts."
"The world is very evil. An unguarded look, a word, a gesture, a picture, or a novel, might plant a seed of corruption in the most innocent heart."
"Whatever makes any bad action familiar to the mind, renders its performance by so much the easier."
"Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts."
"Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die."
"In the most distinct classes of the animal kingdom, with mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, and even crustaceans, the differences between the sexes follow almost exactly the same rules; the males are almost always the wooers."
"The female, with the rarest exception, is less eager than the male."
"An undiscriminating eagerness in the males and a discriminating passivity in the females."
"I should say that the majority of women are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind."
"The best mothers, wives, and managers of households, know little or nothing of sexual indulgences. Love of home, children, and domestic duties, are the only passions they feel."
"The point is simply that, whatever each sex must do to get what it wants from the other, both sexes should be inclined to do it with zest."
"A male would be selected to differentiate between a female he will only impregnate and a female with whom he will also raise young."
"The last thing evolutionary psychologists would expect to find is that a plainly postmenopausal woman is sexually attractive to the average man."
"A partner they were 'steadily dating' would have to be much smarter than average, and a marriageable partner would have to be smarter still."
"Women can afford to be more open-minded about looks; an oldish man, unlike an oldish woman, is probably fertile."
"Male jealousy should focus on sexual infidelity, and males should be quite unforgiving of it."
"When people see a beautiful woman with an ugly man, they typically assume he has lots of money or status."
"The more chances a woman has had to collect sperm from other males, the more profusely her mate sends in his own troops."
"As men grow more attuned to the threat of cuckoldry, women should get better at convincing a man that their adoration borders on awe, their fidelity on the saintly."
"Promiscuous women would be welcome as short-term sex partners — indeed, preferable, in some ways, since they can be had with less effort."
"Like a child that has something it loves beyond measure, I long to dwell on the words my own dear Emma... . My own dear Emma, I kiss the hands with all humbleness and gratitude, which have so filled up for me the cup of happiness ... but do dear Emma, remember life is short, and two months is the sixth part of the year." — Darwin in November 1838, in a letter to his fiancee, urging an early wedding.
"Sexual desire makes saliva to flow ... curious association." — Darwin in his scientific notebook, same month, same year.
"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides." — John Stuart Mill.
"She has been my greatest blessing, and I can declare that in my whole life I have never heard her utter one word which I had rather have been unsaid... . She has been my wise adviser and cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned the love and admiration of every soul near her." — Darwin in Autobiography (1876).
"Your charming Cousin Lucy Galton is engaged to marry Mr. Moilliet: the eldest son of a very fat Mrs. Moilliet... . The young Gentleman has a good fortune, so of course the match gives great satisfaction." — Susan Darwin wrote to her brother Charles during his voyage.
"I never should know French, — or see the Continent — or go to America, or go up in a Balloon, or take solitary trip in Wales — poor slave — you will be worse than a negro." — Charles Darwin musing on marriage in his personal journal.
"Doddy was generous enough to give Anny the last mouthful of his gingerbread & today ... he again put his last crumb on the sofa for Anny to run to & then cried in rather a vain-glorious tone 'oh kind Doddy' 'kind Doddy.'" — Observation of Darwin's children (1842).
"The love of approbation and the dread of infamy, as well as the bestowal of praise or blame" are grounded in instinct. - The Descent of Man
"Many a man, from whose eyes no suffering of his own could wring a tear, has shed tears at the sufferings of a beloved friend." - The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
"It is a pleasant thing to see the aborigines advanced to the same degree of civilization, however low that may be, which their white conquerors have attained." - The Voyage of the Beagle
"I see no reason why a conscious motive need be involved. It is necessary that help provided to others be occasionally reciprocated if it is to be favored by natural selection. It is not necessary that either the giver or the receiver be aware of this." - George Williams, Adaptation and Natural Selection
"One should postulate adaptation at no higher a level than is necessitated by the facts." - George Williams, Adaptation and Natural Selection
"Simply stated, an individual who maximizes his friendships and minimizes his antagonisms will have an evolutionary advantage, and selection should favor those characters that promote the optimization of personal relationships." - Robert Trivers, The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism
"Who can say what cows feel, when they surround and stare intently on a dying or dead companion?" - The Descent of Man
"The reasoning powers and foresight... became improved, each man would soon learn from experience that if he aided his fellow-men, he would commonly receive aid in return." - The Descent of Man
"However strange it may seem to bring plant and animal breeders into the picture, this made perfect sense after 1963." - The Descent of Man
"We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age." - Charles Darwin, on the death of his daughter Annie
"Death in the latter case, when there is a bright future ahead, causes grief never to be wholly obliterated." - Charles Darwin, on the nature of grief
"The death of the old and young." - Charles Darwin, reflecting on the difference between the death of older and younger individuals
"The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class." - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
"The personality and conscience of the child is formed in an arena of conflict." - Robert Trivers, on child-rearing and genetic conflict
"The behaviour of a post-reproductive animal may be expected to be entirely altruistic." - William D. Hamilton, on the behavior of older animals
"The only potentially immortal organic entity is a gene." - Reflection on gene survival over generations
"The ultimate criterion which determines whether G will spread is not whether the behavior is to the benefit of the behaver but whether it is to the benefit of the gene G." - William D. Hamilton, on gene-centric view of evolution
"The final arbiter of evolution is thought of as 'inclusive fitness,' which takes into account also the genes' indirect legacy." - Reflection on the concept of inclusive fitness in evolutionary biology
"The more precisely we bestow unconditional kindness on relatives, the less of it is left over for others." - Reflection on the nature of kin-directed altruism
"The exact strength depending on the average extent of kinship with people regularly in the vicinity." - On the development of altruism in social groups
"The arms race goes on forever." - On the ongoing evolutionary arms race between parental manipulation and child resistance
"In any polygynous species, some males mate prolifically and others fail entirely to reproduce." - On the reproductive dynamics in polygynous species
"The arms race goes on forever." - On the continuous evolutionary arms race between different strategies
"The arms race goes on forever." - On the never-ending evolutionary competition between different strategies and adaptations
"Cooperation can begin to feed on itself early in the game."
"Simple, conditional cooperation is more infectious than unmitigated meanness."
"How did reciprocal altruism get off the ground?"
"Kin selection can favor any gene that raises the precision with which altruism flows toward relatives."
"A gene counseling apes to love other apes that suckled at their mother's breast might thrive."
"Reciprocal altruism has presumably shaped the texture not just of human emotion, but of human cognition."
"Morality is the device of an animal of exceptional cognitive complexity, pursuing its interests in an exceptionally complex social universe."
"Our deepest compassion is our best bargain hunting."
"The conscience doesn't make us feel bad the way hunger feels bad, or good the way sex feels good."
"Natural selection had no way of anticipating Darwin's social environment."
"The strongest and most vigorous men, those who could best defend and hunt for their families, would have succeeded in rearing a greater average number of offspring."
"Male competitiveness has a cultural as well as genetic basis."
"For female primates, status can bring benefits, such as more food or favored treatment of offspring."
"Both chimp and human hierarchies are subtler than chicken hierarchies."
"The evolutionary mixture that generated it — of reciprocal altruism and status hierarchy — is exceedingly rare in the annals of animal life."
"Status for chimps, like status for people, depends on more than ambition and raw strength."
"What, after all, are friends for? But it really is remarkable."
"Humans tend to compare themselves to those very near them in the status hierarchy."
"That is a product of government policy, or lack of policy."
"If politics is, as political scientists say, the process by which resources are divvied up, then chimps demonstrate that the origins of human politics long predate humanity."
"No one who actively seeks power is to be trusted."
"Human beings are designed to assess their social environment."
"What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly."
"But it really is remarkable. The evolutionary mixture that generated it — of reciprocal altruism and status hierarchy — is exceedingly rare in the annals of animal life."
"The primary evolutionary function of the self is to be the organ of impression management."
"Reciprocal altruism brings its own agenda to the presentation of self, and thus to the deception of self."
"The thirst for approval appears early in life."
"A common first step is to forge a bond with a primate of higher status, and this involves an act of submission, a profession of inferiority."
"I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice." [Page 331]
"In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality." [Page 335]
"The poverty of the incapable, the distresses that come upon the imprudent, the starvation of the idle, and those shoulderings aside of the weak by the strong, which leave so many 'in shallows and in miseries,' are the decrees of a large, farseeing benevolence." [Page 329]
"If there are any marks at all of special design in creation, one of the things most evidently designed is that a large proportion of all animals should pass their existence in tormenting and devouring other animals." [Page 330]
"You are not privileged, and you shouldn't act as if you are." [Page 336]
"The greatest-happiness principle indirectly serves as a nearly safe standard of right and wrong." [Page 332]
"Everyone's happiness counts equally; you are not privileged, and you shouldn't act as if you are." [Page 335]
"Our descent, then, is the origin of our evil passions!! — The devil under form of Baboon is our grandfather." [Page 327]
"We are all self-promoters and social climbers." [Page 324]
"We believe the things — about morality, personal worth, even objective truth — that lead to behaviors that get our genes into the next generation." [Page 324]
"To ponder natural selection is to be staggered by the amount of suffering and death that can be the price for a single, slight advance in organic design."
"It is remarkable that a creative process devoted to selfishness could produce organisms which, having finally discerned this creator, reflect on this central value and reject it."
"Most people who clearly understand the new Darwinian paradigm and earnestly ponder it will be led toward greater compassion and concern for their fellow human beings."
"The new paradigm strips self-absorption of its noble raiment."
"The feeling of 'rightness' accompanying our dislike is just window dressing."
"The ultimate genetic selfishness underlying an impulse is morally neutral — grounds neither for embracing the impulse nor for condemning it."
"The new paradigm is useful because it helps us see that the aura of rightness surrounding so many of our actions may be delusional."
"To be moral animals, we must realize how thoroughly we aren't."
"The ethical progress of society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process, still less in running away from it, but in combating it."
"A good starting point would be to generally discount moral indignation by 50 percent or so, mindful of its built-in bias."
"Even if punishment serves no discernible purpose, it is supposedly good."